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28 December 2012

3-4 June 2013, Lausanne, Switzerland Co-Sponsored with theSwiss Institute of Comparative LawNote that the conference theme, the movement of laws and/or norms over time and space, is particularly appropriate for comparative legal historians.

Proposalsshould be submitted to Seán Patrick Donlan atsean.donlan@ul.ieby15 January 2013.

Registration fees (excluding optional conference dinner, €50) are:

€50: Juris Diversitas Members (Full membership 2012 and 2013)€100: Juris Diversitas Members (Full membership 2013) or Members of the AiSDC€200: Non-Members

2013 marks the tricentenary of the peace treaties concluded at Utrecht (11 April 1713), which put an end to (part of) the War of the Spanish Succession. This last great war of Louis XIV's Grand Siècle brought war to the four corners of Europe, as well as to the overseas territories. After the treaties of Utrecht (1713, Rastatt (6 March 1714) and Baden (7 November 1714), Europe entered a rather exceptional peaceful interval in the "bellicose" early modern period, putting a provisional end to a century of uninterrupted bloodshed. The conferences which took place in Utrecht in the years 1712-1713 can be seen as a mirror of changes in intellectual, economic, political and dynastic thought, as well as of elite culture.

Although a millennium ago the Middle East was not an economic laggard, by the 18th century it exhibited clear signs of economic backwardness. The reason for this transformation is that certain components of the region's legal infrastructure stagnated as their Western counterparts gave way to the modern economy. Among the institutions that generated evolutionary bottlenecks are the Islamic law of inheritance, which inhibited capital accumulation; the absence in Islamic law of the concept of a corporation and the consequent weaknesses of civil society; and the waqf, which locked vast resources into unproductive organizations for the delivery of social services. All of these obstacles to economic development were largely overcome through radical reforms initiated in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, traditional Islamic law remains a factor in the Middle East's ongoing economic disappointments. The weakness of the region's private economic sectors and its human capital deficiency stand among the lasting consequences of traditional Islamic law.

24 December 2012

The 12th issue of the Revue d’Études Benthamiennes, to be published in autumn 2013, will be devoted to the theme described below. It will be coordinated by Claire Wrobel (Université Lille 2)

GENERAL PRESENTATION

Bentham and his followers were undeniably interdisciplinary thinkers as their interests ranged from reforming the legal and political system to economic and colonial matters as well as language. They moved about diverse social circles and, even when they did not meet face to face, reformers and writers often discussed, albeit on different modes, the same issues.

The REB is seeking to publish papers relying on the methodology of “Law and Literature” studies to shed new light on the works and thinking of Bentham and his followers and, conversely, identify what Bentham's theory of fiction or evidence – for instance – may bring to the field.

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Contributions may address - but are not necessarily limited to – the axes which are already well-established: law in literature (the way literature reflects – in both senses of the word – the world of law and legal processes), law as literature (the literary properties of legal texts), the law of literature (the laws relating to literary production and intellectual property), legal and literary hermeneutics. Bentham's theories on fictions and evidence may prove particularly fruitful for hermeneutic issues.(...)DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION Please send proposals (in French or in English) of around 500 words and a short biography to Emmanuelle de Champs (edechamps@univ-paris8.fr) and Claire Wrobel (claire.wrobel@univ-lille2.fr) by December 12th. Acceptance of proposals will be signified in February. Completed articles will be due by June 1st 2013To read the full call for papers please click here

The Giornale di Storia costituzionale is a periodical published twice a year. It was born in 2001 with the aim of promoting and gathering research and methodological proposals that concern the manifold paths of constitutional history. The articles here published intend to analyse - in a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective - the foundations and characters of a complex historical and cultural phenomenon which has given birth to a common inheritance, yet with different forms and conceptions. Between present and past, the scholars of law, politics, institutions, and more generally the experts of social sciences think and dialogue about constitutionalism, marked by deep historical roots and growing tensions. The Giornale has already become a meeting and reference point for the different practices of constitutional history, it publishes essays in various languages and is characterised by thematic richness and variety in surveys, alternating miscellaneous issues with others dedicated to monographic research.

Historia et Ius is an on-line International journal dedicated to medieval, modern and contemporary historical legal studies. Founded after the initiative of a group Italian legal historians, the journal is supported by an editorial board composed by European legal historians of high scientific profile.

The
American Society for Legal History and the Institute for Legal Studies at the
University of Wisconsin Law School are pleased to invite applications for the
seventh biennial Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History. The purpose of the
Hurst Institute is to advance the approach to legal scholarship fostered by J.
Willard Hurst in his teaching, mentoring, and scholarship. The "Hurstian
perspective" emphasizes the importance of understanding law in context; it is
less concerned with the characteristics of law as developed by formal legal
institutions than with the way in which positive law manifests itself as the
"law in action." The Hurst Institute assists scholars from law, history, and
other disciplines in pursuing research in legal history.

The
two-week program is structured but informal, and features presentations by guest
scholars, discussions of core readings in legal history, and analysis of the
work of the participants in the Institute. The general format includes intensive
daily sessions Monday-Friday that run through mid-afternoon, a few scheduled
social events, and some free time for additional discussion, reading and
research. Fellows will have the opportunity to conduct archival work at the
Wisconsin Historical Society. (The Society holds a vast array of primary
documents and is particularly strong in areas involving nineteenth and twentieth
century social movements and labor activism. In addition, the Library possesses
an excellent collection of federal and state government material which is
largely un-cataloged.)

23 December 2012

Call for Papers:2013 Meeting of the American Society for Legal HistoryThe 2013 meeting of the American Society for Legal History will
take place in Miami, Florida, November 7-10, 2013. The ASLH invites proposals on
any facet or period of legal history, anywhere in the world. In selecting
presenters, the Program Committee will give preference to those who did not
present at last year’s meeting.Travel grants will be available for
presenters in need; these resources will nevertheless still be limited, and
special priority will be given to presenters traveling from abroad, graduate
students, post-docs, and independent scholars.The Program Committee
welcomes proposals for both full panels and individual papers, though please
note that individual papers are less likely to be accepted. As concerns panels,
the Program Committee encourages the submission of a variety of different types
of proposals, including:

traditional 3-paper panels (with a separate
commentator and chair)

incomplete 2-paper panels (with a separate commentator
and chair), which the Committee will try to complete with at least 1 more
paper;

In the case of paper-based panels only, a 300-word
abstract of each paper .

Individual paper proposals should
include:

A c.v. for each presenter (including complete contact
info);

A 300-word abstract of each paper

The deadline for submitting
proposals is March 1, 2013. Proposals should be sent as email attachments to
proposals@aslh.net. Substantive questions should be directed to Christina Duffy
Ponsa at cponsa@law.columbia.edu or Karl Shoemaker at
kbshoemaker@wisc.edu.Those unable to send proposals as email attachments
may mail hard copies to:2013 ASLH Program Committeec/o Christina
Duffy PONSAColumbia Law School435 W. 116th Street, Rm. 913New York,
NY 10027

If you or your collegues want to submit to the journal any work, article or research, we inform you that the submission deadline for the next number is 06/30/2013. Texts can be sent to Leandro Martinez Peñas, Secretary of the Journal, to the following e-mail:

17 December 2012

The Selden Society hopes to award again in 2013 its David Yale Prize. The Prize is for an outstanding contribution to the history of the
law of England and Wales. The previous age requirement, that it be by
a scholar under the age of 35, is being relaxed but the intention of
the prize remains: to encourage younger researchers and also those new
to the field to engage in and produce substantial new work.In
previous years a prize of £1,000 sterling has been awarded.

For further
details please contact the Secretary, Selden Society, School of Law, Queen
Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS,
England or selden-society@qmul.ac.uk. Victor Tunkel, Secretary, Selden
Society.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Berlin-based Postdoctoral Program Rechtskulturen: Confrontations beyond Comparison invites scholars to apply for seven postdoctoral fellowships for the academic year 2013/2014.
THE PROGRAM
Rechtskulturen (‘legal cultures’) is a Berlin-based postdoctoral research program which is designed to explore the law in new and innovative ways. We intend to create a space of reflection and communication where fundamental and salient questions of the law and its context(s) can be re-negotiated from a variety of disciplinary and regional perspectives, and re-connected with jurisprudence and legal methodology.
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CANDIDATES
Applicants should be at the postdoctoral level and should have obtained their doctorate within the last five years before their application to the program. We welcome candidates with various disciplinary backgrounds, such as the field of legal studies, sociology, political science, philosophy, history, anthropology, theology, and area studies, representing a broad range of diverse approaches to the law, including gender studies, comparative research, law & literature, critical legal studies, administrative sciences, transitional justice, postcolonial theory, and legal philosophy and theory. In particular, we encourage applicants with a firm disciplinary background in law to engage in reflexive and transdisciplinary research.
For the academic year 2013/2014, we welcome in particular applicants interested in the law’s place in systems of knowledge and knowledge production (e.g. its relation to science, theology, philosophy, philology), in legal methodologies, in the law as a professional field, and in law in professional practices. We strongly encourage applications from scholars analyzing the law in various cultural contexts, engaging with confrontations beyond comparison.
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FELLOWSHIPS
Fellowships begin on 1 October, 2013 and will end on 31 July, 2014. Postdoctoral fellows will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,500 plus supplements depending on their personal situation. Organizational support regarding visa, insurances, housing, etc. will be provided.
Successful applicants will be fellows of the project Rechtskulturen at the Forum Transregionale Studien and Associate Members of Humboldt University Law School. Through this association, they will be integrated into the Law School and will have access to the academic milieu of a leading German university as well as to libraries and other research facilities.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
To apply, please make use of our web-based electronic application procedure that will be open for applications from 10 January 2013 to 24 January 2013 (24:00, CET), see www.rechtskulturen.de/en/call-for-applications.html
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13 December 2012

The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) invites paper
submissions for its first annual ASLH Workshop, which will be held immediately
preceding the ASLH annual meeting in Miami/Fort Lauderdale (Nov. 7-10, 2013).
The workshop is sponsored by ASLH to promote scholarship in areas of legal
history that have been traditionally underrepresented at ASLH meetings and in
the Law and History Review. This year’s workshop topic is Latin American Legal
History. (Workshop topics will rotate on an annual basis.) The ASLH Legal
History Workshop will bring together authors and noted scholars in the field in
order to work collaboratively toward refining scholarly writing. An important
objective of the workshop is encouraging scholarly conversations among
historians of legal systems from a broad range of historical periods and
places.

The inaugural session will take place under the presidency of M. François Hollande, President of the Republic.

Registration is compulsory. Please write an email tocolloquefairedeschoix@conseil-etat.fr specifying your name, surname and address. You will receive a personal invitation within the limits of the seats available.

Edmund
Burke prided himself on being a practical statesman, not an armchair
philosopher. Yet his responses to specific problems – rebellion in America, the abuse of power in India and Ireland,
or revolution in France
– incorporated theoretical debates within jurisprudence, economics, religion,
moral philosophy and political science. Moreover, the extraordinary rhetorical
force of Burke's speeches and writings quickly secured his reputation as a
gifted orator and literary stylist. This Companion provides a comprehensive
assessment of Burke's thought, exploring all his major writings from his early
treatise on aesthetics to his famous polemic, Reflections on the Revolution
in France. It also examines the vexed question of Burke's Irishness and
seeks to determine how his cultural origins may have influenced his political
views. Finally, it aims both to explain and to challenge interpretations of
Burke as a romantic, a utilitarian, a natural law thinker and founding father
of modern conservatism.

The Companion includes
my ‘Burke on law and legal theory’. The introduction
notes that:

Burke’s frequent recourse to
legal arguments and principles gleaned from traditions of common law and
natural law jurisprudence also need to be interpreted within a broader
historical and intellectual context. As Seán Donlan argues, Burke could sing
the praises of England’s ‘ancient constitution’ as well as any other Whig, but he
could also challenge parochial views of English legal history and was
especially critical of the insularity of popular common law histories
associated with William Blackstone. Instead, he chose to emphasise the degree
to which English law was the result of frequent and constructive communication
with the continent. Throughout his life he expressed impatience at narrow or
excessively positivist constructions of law and insisted that all legal schemes
must accommodate the particular manners and morals of nations as well as
ethical constraints imposed by human nature. Of course, critics have disputed
the meaning and importance of these ethical constraints, and it is an issue
that Christopher Insole addresses in his chapter on Burke’s use of natural law.

Emanuele Conte and Sara Menzinger have recently published the first critical edition of the most ancient treatise on public law produced by medieval legal science: the Summa Trium Librorum by Rolandus de Luca.

Rolandus, even though perfectly aware of the style and "tastes" of the Glossators of the 12th century, was not a professor: he was a judge, involved in the practice of the cities' courts as well as in the communal politics. His work brings us to reconsider the relationship between legal doctrine and institutional practice at the end of the 12th century, when the revival of the Empire corresponded to the rise of the autonomy of the Italian city-states.

The long introduction to this critical edition aims at opening a new debate on medieval public law, which was developed with reference to the relationship between Empire and city-states. The theories and legal reasoning developed in this work, which is characterized by a deeply laic approach, are essential to fully understand the public law theories of the 13th century which have been a pivotal topic of medieval legal historical studies in the last decades.

The European Union's (EU) powerful legal framework drives the process of European integration. The Court of Justice (ECJ) has established a uniquely effective supranational legal order, beyond the original wording of the Treaty of Rome and transforming our traditional understanding of international law. This work investigates how these fundamental transformations in the European legal system were received in one of the most important member states, Germany. On the one hand, Germany has been highly supportive of political and economic integration; yet on the other, a fundamental pillar of the post-war German identity was the integrity of its constitutional order. How did a state whose constitution was so essential to its self-understanding subscribe to the constitutional practice of EU law? How did a country who could not say 'no' to Europe become the member state most reluctant to accept the new power of the ECJ?

06 December 2012

Currently, China
is drafting its new Civil Code. Against this background, the Chinese legal
community has shown a growing interest in various legal and legislative ideas
from around the world. Within this context, the present book aims at providing
the necessary historical and comparative legal perspectives. It concentrates on
substantive private law and civil procedure, both in China and in other jurisdictions.
These perspectives are of considerable importance for the present codification
work. Additionally, the book is dedicated to commemorating the centennial of
the first Western-influenced and civil law-oriented Civil
Code of China, the Da Qing Min Lü Cao An of 1911.

The following topics are addressed: property law, contract
law, tort law and civil procedure. The book also contains contributions on
codification experiences in Europe and on the
concept of codification in general. The topics are discussed by leading Chinese
and international scholars. Most of the Chinese contributors have taken part in
preparing the Chinese Draft Civil Code.

The book is the outcome of a conference organized by the
Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law (RCCL), School of Law,
City University of Hong Kong, in October 2010.

04 December 2012

Brill just published Wim Decock (KULeuven/MPI Frankfurt)'s doctoral thesis Theologians and Contract Law. The Moral Transformation of the Ius Commune [Studies in the History of Private Law, 9/4], xix + 723.

Abstract:

The Roman legal tradition is the ancestor of modern contract law but
there is no agreement as to how and when a general law of contract
emerged. Wim Decock’s thesis is that an important step in this evolution
was taken by theologians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
They transformed the Roman legal tradition (ius commune) by insisting on
the moral foundations of contract law. Theologians emphasized that the
enforceability of contracts is based on voluntary consent and that a
contract should not enrich one party at another's expense. While their
main concern was the salvation of souls,
theologians played a key role in the development of a systematic
contract law in which the founding principles were freedom and fairness

Scant bibliography exists in Italy on the Liber
Belial, the work written by Giacomo Palladino, alias Jacopo da Teramo
(1349-1417), bishop in Monopoli, Taranto, Firenze and Spoleto. In his book the author
imagined that the devils decided to bring legal action against the
dispossession by Jesus Christ, when he descended into the Hell to free the
patriarchs’ soul. The Liber Belial presents interesting juridical
content: studying the juridical controversy of the protagonists, the work describes
the intricate and obscure procedural mechanisms, unravelling their secrets into
the vast world of the profane, in a pleasant fictionalized style but also with
absolute technical accuracy: the description of every processual step contains
precise references to legal sources: above all the LiberExtra of
Gregory the IX, but also Liber Sextus, Digesta and Codex
Iustiniani. The legal content is not the only in the Liber Belial.
We have a theological content (all the protagonists acting in the book, in
fact, are figures of the Catholic Tradition) and an important sociological
content: the long section in which the Last Judgement is explained, the
description of what is right or wrong, true or false, make of the Liber Belial
an important and effectual interpretive means of the medieval mentality.

The present work, Il
Liber Belial e il processo romano-canonico in Europa tra XV e XVI secolo,
is divided into three parts: in the first the authors describe the basic
profiles of the author and his work and deepen the legal content of Liber
Belial; in the second part we have the faithful transcription of the only
edition in Italian, printed in Venice in 1544; in the third part we have a
comparison of the normative apparatuses of the most important Liber Belial's
European versions

Linda T. Darling, A history of social justice and political power in the Middle
East: the Circle of Justice from Mesopotamia to globalization, New York: Routledge, 2012

From ancient Mesopotamia into the 20th century, "the Circle of Justice" as a concept has pervaded Middle Eastern political thought and underpinned the exercise of power in the Middle East. The Circle of Justice depicts graphically how a government’s justice toward the population generates political power, military strength, prosperity, and good administration.
This book traces this set of relationships from its earliest appearance in the political writings of the Sumerians through four millennia of Middle Eastern culture. It explores how people conceptualized and acted upon this powerful insight, how they portrayed it in symbol, painting, and story, and how they transmitted it from one regime to the next. Moving towards the modern day, the author shows how, although the Circle of Justice was largely dropped from political discourse, it did not disappear from people’s political culture and expectations of government. The book demonstrates the Circle’s relevance to the Iranian Revolution and the rise of Islamist movements all over the Middle East, and suggests how the concept remains relevant in an age of capitalism.